On the bus up to Waterloo there are bursts of blossom in the trees. The sun is beaming for the second day in a row, and as we approach the hive the bees are happily flying in and out. It really does feel like Spring.

John pops the lid, examines the 5 frames of brood and notices we have a new queen - she has no marking on her so the hive has reared a new one.

Through means mysterious to me, John is able to discern that she has mated with “a lot of common Londoners”, which sounds like rather unqueenly behaviour. These bees are an Italian strain, but originally from New Zealand, and much more docile than native English bees. I hope we don’t catch her hanging around outside The Walkabout wearing a rugby shirt and talking funny.

John decided to remove the heaviest frame of brood and take it home to put in another hive as a way to keep the numbers down and as an experiment to see what the West London bees make of their Southside bredrin.

We were joined on today’s visit by a former bee researcher who had been exploring bio control of the varroa mite five or six years ago until DEFRA removed the funding into bee research at Rothamsted, an institute in Hertfordshire where they had been conducting bee studies since the 1920s. A world expert on bee viruses is now working as a dinner lady in her daughter’s school and we’re no closer to understanding why the bees are disappearing - John lost a third of his this winter. What is that all about?